Abrams2014
| Abrams2014 | |
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| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Abrams2014 |
| Author(s) | Thomas Abrams |
| Title | Flawed by Dasein? Phenomenology, ethnomethodology, and the personal experience of physiotherapy |
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| Tag(s) | EMCA, Physiotherapy, Disability, Heidegger, Ontological difference, Phenomenology, Ethnomethodology |
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| Year | 2014 |
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| Journal | Human Studies |
| Volume | 37 |
| Number | 3 |
| Pages | 431–446 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10746-014-9316-2 |
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Abstract
This paper applies a hybrid Heideggerian-ethnomethodological approach to physiotherapy practice. Unlike previous studies written by and for practitioners, this paper uses my personal experience receiving physical therapy as its point of departure. By combining Heidegger’s [Being and time (trans: Stambaugh J). State University of New York Press, New York 1996] notion of the ‘ontological difference’ with Garfinkel’s (Studies in ethnomethodology, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs 1967) concept of ‘accountability,’ I argue that in physical therapy practice, both client and practitioner actively shape the body into a coherent object for medical intervention. I begin by introducing three key phenomenological concepts, the life-world, the ontological difference, and Heidegger’s critique of subjectivity. I then empirically substantiate these concepts by reviewing classic and recent studies in ethnomethodology. I conclude with my own experience of physical therapy, and demonstrate how both client and practitioner actively constitute the body as a medical and therapeutic object. This is cause for both disability studies and physiotherapy to reconsider some of their core concepts, ‘medicalization’ and ‘client-specific measurement,’ respectively.
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